Latch for sliding door



May 23, 1967 E. J. WYRICK LATCH FOR smmne 900R 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 19 1965 INVENTOR EDWARD J. WYR/GK BY W #W/w? ATTORNEYS y 1967 E. J. WYRICK 3,321,227

LATCH FOR SLIDING DOOR Filed Jan. 19 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 EDWARD ATTORNEYS INVENTOR United States Patent York Filed Jan. 19, 1965, Ser. No. 426,581 8 Claims. (Cl. 292-65) This invention relates to a combined latch and lock mechanism for sliding doors.

Sliding doors of glass in aluminum frames have become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in home construction where the use of glass walls is becoming more common.

Latches for such doors are necessarily of different construction than for swinging doors because they must hold the door against sliding rather than swinging movement, and are normally mounted between the metal walls of the door frame, which is not always the case in latches for swinging doors.

In accordance with the present invention a combined latch and lock mechanism for a sliding door is provided that is simple in design, easy to assemble, and has a minimum number of parts. Its construction is such that the closing of a sliding panel, even with excessive force, cannot damage either the latch or the latch keeper. The latch does not automatically engage when the door is closed, as either a lock or a manual device must be operated after the door is closed in order to engage the latch. Where the lock is actuated from the outside of the door it is impossible to accidentally lock oneself out from the outside as on the outside of the door one must use the lock key to actuate the latch. The design is such that the latch can be changed from right to left hand operation by the simple reversal of one movable part from one position to another.

It is accordingly a primary object of the invention to provide a new and improved latch and lock for a sliding door.

Another important object of the invention is the provision of a novel latch and lock for a sliding door wherein no damage will be done to either the latch or the keeper if the door be closed with excessive force.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a novel latch and lock for a sliding door wherein the latch is not engaged merely by the closing of the door, but additional manual manipulation is required to actuate the latch.

Still another important object of the invention is the provision of a latch and lock for a sliding door which is of simplified construction and which can be changed from right to left hand operation by the simple reversal of one movable part from one direction to another.

Other objects will become apparent as the description proceeds in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a view in side elevation, partly in section, of a portion of a sliding door and a stationary jamb wherein there is incorporated in the sliding door a latch and lock assembly emboding the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a front view partly in section along the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1, of the latch and lock assembly itself.

FIGURE 2A is a partial sectional view along the line 2A2A of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 3 is a view in side elevation of the left hand half of the latch and lock assembly of FIGURE 3, as viewed from the right in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a view in side elevation of the right hand half of the latch and lock assembly of FIGURE 2 as viewed from the left in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a view in side elevation of the right 3,321,227 Patented May 23, 1967 hand half of the latch and lock assembly of FIGURE as viewed from the right in FIGURE 2.

Referring to FIGURE 1 wherein an embodiment of the latch and lock mechanism of the invention is shown assembled into a panel stile 10 of a sliding door, there is also shown a frame jainb 11 of a fixed wall panel, having a series of resilient bumper buttons, one of which is shown at 12, for engagement with the end wall 13 of the sliding door panel stile 10 when the door is in. the closed position.

The end wall 13 of the stile 10 has an aperture 14 for the passage of a fixed latch keeper 15 that is integral with a mounting plate 16 secured by screws 17 to the frame jamb 11. A reinforcing plate 21 having an aperture 22 aligned with the aperture 14 in the end wall 13 of the panel stile 10 is secured to the end wall 13 by screws 23.

The latch and lock mechanism includes two die castings or housings 24 and 25 shown in FIGURE 2 in assembled relationship with each other and mounted in place in aligned rectangular openings 26 and 27 in the opposite side walls 31 and 32 of the sliding door panel stile 10. The castings or housings 24 and 25 have peripheral flanges 33 and 34 (FIGURES 2, 3 and 4) that are larger than the rectangular openings 26 and 27 in the opposed walls of the panel stile, and these flanges thus overlap the edges of the openings. Within the inner edges of the peripheral flanges 33 and 34 the castings 24 and 25 have shoulders or bosses 35 and 36 respectively that fit within the openings 26 and 27, and together with the peripheral flanges, locate the die castings within the openings 26 and 27. The castings 24 and 25 are secured together by a pair of machine screws 40 that pass through unthreaded openings in bosses 41 in the casting 24 and are threaded into bosses 42 in the casting 25. The height of each pair of bosses 41 and 42 is such that they are separated by a small gap 43 when the screws 40 are tightened. In the event that the screws are overtightened, engagement of the bosses 41 and 42 would occur before there would be any substantial deformation of the side walls 31 and 32 of the panel stile 10.

The outer wall of the die casting 24 is not all in one plane, but has an upper wall portion 44 (FIGURE 2) substantially coplanar with the head of screw 40 and a depressed wall portion 45. The other die casting 25 has similar upper and depressed lower portions 46 and 47. The depressed lower portions of these two walls form cavities into which a persons fingers may be inserted when sliding the door to closed or open position.

Near its lower end the upper wall portion 44 of casting 24 has a vertical slot 51 through it for the passage of a protruding portion 52 on a finger operated latch slide 53. The protruding portion 52 is of lesser height than the slot 51 so that it may slide vertically in the slot which has a lining 54 of a solid nylon or similar friction reducing material. As best seen in FIGURE 2 the lining 54 is substantially L-shaped in cross section with one leg fitting snugly within the slot 51 and the other leg lying between the outer surface of the wall portion 44 and the inner surface of latch slide 53.

The protruding portion 52 of the latch slide 53 includes a reduced portion 55 on its right end as viewed in FIGURE 2 which passes through and is snugly received in a corresponding opening in the lower end portion of a latch slide plate 56, visible in FIGURES 2 and 3. The part of the reduced portion 55 that protrudes through the latch slide plate is peened or upset as shown at 57 in FIGURE 2, whereby the latch slide plate is rigidly secured to the finger operated latch slide 53 and is movable vertically with it while retaining its protruding portion within the slot 51.

Adjacent its upper end the latch slide plate 56 has a triangular shaped opening 58 therethrough, the purpose 3 of which will be described. Substantially at its mid-point the latch slide plate 56 has a pair of spaced pins 62 and 63 protruding from it and extending horizontally toward the wall 46 of the other casting or housing 25. The pins are parallel and spaced equidistantly from the vertical center line of the latch slide plate 56. They are integral with the slide plate 56 or otherwise rigidly affixed thereto.

A latch indicated generally at 64 has a normally vertical leg 65, a normally horizontal leg 66 and a connecting leg 67, and is pivotally mounted upon the pin 62. In the illustrated embodiment the latch 64 is formed from a single piece of metal, and a bearing for mounting it upon the pin'62 is formed by shearing and depressing the outer edge portions 68 and 69 adjacent the juncture of the horizontal leg 66 and the connecting leg 67, as shown in FIGURE 3.

A coiled tension spring 72 is secured at its upper end to the horizontal leg 66 of the latch which has a sheared depression in it forming an eye 73 to which the upper end of the spring is hooked. The lower end of the spring is connected to a fixed hook 74 protruding inwardly adjacent the upper end of the depressed wall portion 45. The tension in the spring is suflicient to resiliently retain the latch in the position shown in FIGURE 3 with the pin 63 forming a stop by engagement with the underside of latch leg 66 to prevent the clockwise rotation of the latch 64 about its pivot. The latch may however rock about the pivot 62 in a counterclockwise direction.

FIGURE 1 illustrates the action of the latch during the closing of a door. When the door is open the leg 65 of the latch 64 is vertical, as viewed in FIGURE 3 and in the solid line position in FIGURE 1. Upon movement of the door to closed position, with the end wall 13 of the door stile engaging the bumper button 12, the latch keeper protrudes through the apertures 22 and 14 into the interior of the door stile 10. During this movement the latch keeper engages the vertical leg 65 of the latch 64 and rotates it to the dot-dash position shown at 65A in FIGURE 1. At this time the door is closed but is not latched in closed position, and it may be reopened, whereupon the spring 72 will return the latch to its normal position with its leg 65 vertical.

However, when the door is in the closed position of FIGURE 1 it may be latched in such closed position by raising the finger operated latch slide 53. A finger is inserted into the cavity formed by the depressed wall portion 45 and pressed upwardly against an inwardly turned leg 75 (FIGURE 2) on the bottom end of the finger operated latch slide 53. The raising of the latch slide raises the latch slide plate 56 with its integral pins 62 and 63. During this movement the leg of the latch 64 rides upwardly over the nose of the latch keeper 15 until it clears it, whereupon under the influence of spring 72 it snaps to the vertical position where it is held by the pin 63. Now the finger operated latch slide is lowered by removing the finger pressure on its inwardly turned leg 75, whereupon the spring 72 will return it to the bottom of its stroke. The leg 65 of the latch is now engaged behind the vertical wall 76 of the keeper 15 and the latch now prevents opening of the door until the latch 64 is again raised by an upward movement of the finger operated latch slide 53 until the latch leg 65 clears the keeper 15.

While there is no force tending to move the latch axially along its pivot 62 so that it could slip ofi, such movement is prevented by a vertical rib 77 (FIGURES 2 and 4) which protrudes inwardly from the inner surface of the wall 46 of the other casting or housing 25 to a point closely adjacent the edge of the horizontal leg 66 of the latch 64.

Although the other casting or housing 25 could be provided with a finger operated lat-ch slide similar to the slide 53 for operating the latch 64, as will be understood, it is normally desired to have a key operated lock on the outer side of the door, so that the latch may be locked and unlocked from the outside. In the illustrated embodiment this is provided by a key operated rotatable cylinder lock having a fixed housing 78 mounted in the upper part of wall 46. A cylinder 79 is rotatable in the housing '78 by a key (not shown) inserted into a keyhole 82 (FIG- URE 5). The rotatable cylinder 79 has a stud or pin 83 protruding from its rear face near the periphery thereof, and extending through the opening 58 in the latch slide plate 56, with which it cooperates in the manner of a cam and follower.

In FIGURES 2 and 4 the stud 83 is shown in its lowermost position and the latch slide plate 56 is also in its lowermost position under the tension of spring 72. At this time the stud 83 is seated in a notch 84 (FIGURE 3) in the upper edge 85 of the opening 58 and limits the downward travel of the latch slide plate 56, but does not prevent its upward travel by finger pressure on leg 75 of the latch slide 53 because with such upward travel the triangular opening 58 will move upward to its limit, at which point the stud 83 will engage the lower apex of the triangular opening 58. It will be understood that the vertical sliding movement of the latch slide plate 56 permitted by the stud 83 on the cylinder lock 79 is substantially the same as that permitted by the length of the vertical slot 51 in the wall 44 of the casting, but in any event this movement is sufficient to lift the leg 65 of the latch over the nose of the keeper as previously explained in connection with FIGURE 1.

While the stud 83 would not ordinarily appear in FIGURE 3, according to the description of FIGURE 3, it is shown in dot-dash lines at its lower position at 83 and at its upper position at 83A. It is also shown in dotdas'h lines in its upper position at 83A in FIGURE 4. Similarly the upper edge 85 of the triangular o ening 58 in its uppermost position is shown in dot-dash lines at 85A in FIGURE 3.

Thus to latch and lock the door from the outside a key must be used. With the door closed but not latched, so that the latch leg 65 is deflected to the position 65A of FIGURE 1, the inserted key must be rotated 360 degrees to raise the leg 65 over the keeper 15 and then lower it again. Rotating it just degrees will raise the latch leg 65 over the nose of the keeper so that it will snap to its normal vertical position, but it will not be lowered into place behind the vertical wall 76 on the keeper, and the latch 64 is ineffective of operation from either side of the door until the cylinder 79 of the lock is rotated by the key until the stud or pin 83 is in its lowermost position.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that the mechanism is latched but not locked by operation of the finger operated latch slide on the inside of the door. From the outside of the door it is both latched and locked by rotation of an inserted key into the cylindrical lock. Also, the latch may be rendered totally ineffective by rotating the lock only 180 degrees. This may be desirable at times.

The latch and lock is of simple construction with a minimum of parts and cannot be damaged by slamming the door to closed position, because all that happens is that the latch 64 is deflected so that its leg 65 moves to the position 65A in FIGURE 1.

In order to adapt it to use for a door of opposite hand, that is for the left edge of a door instead of a right edge as viewed in FIGURE 1, no additional parts are needed. The latch 64 is merely reversed so that it is rotatably mounted upon the pin '63 rather than the pin 62. In FIGURE 3 the normally vertical leg 65 is shown in dot dash lines in such reversed position at 65A. The pin 62 will now be a stop rather than a pivot. This reversal of latch 64 is the only step necessary, other than unhooking the spring 72 from the eye 73 and then reattaching it after the latch is reversed.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential charactertistic and spirit thereof, the present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative only and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the fore going description.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A latch for a sliding door comprising,

(a) a housing adapted to be secured in a transverse opening in a vertical panel stile and having a vertical wall with inner and outer sides for closing the opening,

(b) said wall having an elongated vertical slot therethrough,

(c) a finger operated latch slide on the outer side of said wall, having a portion protruding through said slot,

((1) said protruding portion being of lesser height than said slot, whereby it is vertically slidable therein,

(e) a latch slide plate afiixed to said protruding portion and positioned adjacent the inner side of said wall,

(f) first and second parallel pins projecting laterally from said latch slide plate in the same horizontal plane,

(g) a latch pivotally mounted upon said first pin, having a normal position with a normally vertical leg and a normally horizontal leg, both perpendicular to said wall,

(h) a spring operable to urge said latch and said latch slide plate toward this normal position,

(i) said second pin providing a stop limiting rotation of said latch in one direction,

(j) said latch being rotatable in the other direction against the force of said spring when said normally vertical leg is engaged by a keeper,

(k) the length of said slot in said wall being sufficient to permit vertical movement of said latch slide plate in one direction to disengage said latch from the keeper and return it to its normal position,

(I) said normally vertical leg being engageable with said keeper to latch with it when said latch slide plate and said latch are returned to normal position.

2. The latch described in claim 1 wherein,

(a) said first and second pins are equidistant from the vertical centerline of said vertical wall, whereby said latch may be reversed 180 degrees and pivotally mounted upon said second pin for use with a door stile of opposite hand.

3. The latch described in claim 1 wherein,

(a) a second housing having a vertical wall is secured to said first housing and is adapted to be secured in an opposite wall of the door stile in alignment with said first housing,

(b) and means in said second housing, accessible for operation from the outer side thereof, for raising and lowering said latch slide plate against the force of said spring.

4. The latch described in claim 3 wherein, said last mentioned means includes a rotary cam,

(a) said latch slide plate having a cam follower cooperating with said cam.

5. The latch described in claim 1 wherein the vertical wall of the housing has a depressed portion providing a finger grip for opening or closing the door in which the latch is mounted.

6. The latch described in claim 3 wherein the vertical wall of each housing has a depressed portion providing a finger grip for opening or closing the door in which the latch is mounted.

7. The latch described in claim 1 wherein the vertical wall of the housing has a depressed portion providing a finger grip for opening or closing the door in which the latch is mounted,

(a) and said finger operated latch slide has a portion extending into said depression for engagement by a finger inserted into said depressed portion.

8. A latch for a sliding door comprising,

(a) a housing adapted to be secured to the panel stile of a sliding door adjacent an end wall thereof facing the direction in which the door moves in its closing movement,

(b) said housing having a vertical wall with inner and outer sides and an elongated slot therethrough.

(c) a latch slide plate on the inner side of said wall,

((1) a finger operated latch slide on the outer side of said wall,

(e) connecting means extending through said elongated slot and movable therein,

(f) said connecting means rigidly connecting said latch slide plate to said finger operated latch slide, whereby said slide plate and latch slide are movable on opposite sides of said wall,

(g) a latch mounted upon said latch slide plate for pivotal movement about an axis perpendicular to said wall and having a normally vertical leg in a plane perpendicular to said wall,

(h) a spring operable to urge said normally vertical leg to its vertical position,

(i) means forming a stop to limit rotation of said latch under the influence of said spring beyond a point wherein said leg is in its normally vertical position,

(i) said spring means also being operable to urge said latch slide plate and said finger operated latch slide in one direction to the limit of the movement of said connecting means in said elongated slot.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,629,641 5/ 1927 Schlafiy 292-64 X 2,912,271 11/ 1959 Schaefer 292--64 X 3,120,748 2/ 1964 Rechberg.

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner. J. R. MOSES, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A LATCH FOR A SLIDING DOOR COMPRISING, (A) A HOUSING ADAPTED TO BE SECURED IN A TRANSVERSE OPENING IN A VERTICAL PANEL STILE AND HAVING A VERTICAL WALL WITH INNER AND OUTER SIDES FOR CLOSING THE OPENING, (B) SAID WALL HAVING AN ELONGATED VERTICAL SLOT THERETHROUGH, (C) A FINGER OPERATED LATCH SLIDE ON THE OUTER SIDE OF SAID WALL, HAVING A PORTION PROTRUDING THROUGH SAID SLOT, (D) SAID PROTRUDING PORTION BEING OF LESS HEIGHT THAN SAID SLOT, WHEREBY IT IS VERTICALLY SLIDABLE THEREIN, (E) A LATCH SLIDE PLATE AFFIXED TO SAID PROTRUDING PORTION AND POSITIONED ADJACENT THE INNER SIDE OF SAID WALL, (F) FIRST AND SECOND PARALLEL PINS PROJECTING LATERALLY FROM SAID LATCH SLIDE PLATE IN THE SAME HORIZONTAL PLANE, (G) A LATCH PIVOTALLY MOUNTED UPON SAID FIRST PIN, HAVING A NORMAL POSITION WITH A NORMALLY VERTICAL LEG AND A NORMALLY HORIZONTAL LEG, BOTH PERPENDICULAR TO SAID WALL, (H) A SPRING OPERABLE TO URGE SAID LATCH AND SAID LATCH SLIDE PLATE TOWARD THIS NORMAL POSITION, (I) SAID SECOND PIN PROVIDING A STOP LIMITING ROTATION OF SAID LATCH IN ONE DIRECTION, (J) SAID LATCH BEING ROTATABLE IN THE OTHER DIRECTION AGAINST THE FORCE OF SAID SPRING WHEN SAID NORMALLY VERTICAL LEG IS ENGAGED BY A KEEPER, (K) THE LENGTH OF SAID SLOT IN SAID WALL BEING SUFFICIENT TO PERMIT VERTICAL MOVEMENT OF SAID LATCH SLIDE PLATE IN ONE DIRECTION TO DISENGAGE SAID LATCH FROM THE KEEPER AND RETURN IT TO ITS NORMAL POSITION, (L) SAID NORMALLY VERTICAL LEG BEING ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID KEEPER TO LATCH WITH IT WHEN SAID LATCH SLIDE PLATE AND SAID LATCH ARE RETURNED TO NORMAL POSITION. 